We removed a soffit and it made the room feel much more open and spacious. You will need to decide if you prefer pendants or can lights. Or put in 3 cans across the angled front and flank with cans. You will need to be prepared for some sheetrock work, electrical and painting.

Maybe i'm not too hip or up-to date but i think thats a nice looking design. However to me, "out of date" would include 1980s country blue wallpaper with ducks. :) As was mentioned earlier, removing the soffitt would require considerable drywall work and matching the texture rarely works out. I also would go with some hanging pendant lights (pretty easily done) and maybe some paint/ trim work to taste.

Something to keep in mind is that once you remove the soffit, the ceiling is going to feel very empty. I love pedant lights, but my concern in this space is because of the arc that they would follow, they would visually cut off the eating area too much. I would install recessed lighting and purchase a larger and more dynamic light fixture for over the table.

Thanks for all the great feedback! One thought was to do 4 pendants over the bar counter area and then have 2 can lights over the shorter counter height serving section (it is on the left side in the 2nd picture).

As far as blending the Sheetrock, I would think it could be blended then just paint the entire ceiling in that area and it should look ok. The ceiling is smooth so there is no texture on it.

Rope light under soffit edge. Very dramatic effect.

My opinion....I would absolutely remove it .... The "room scape"would be better for it. The wiring can go into the ceiling for a couple of cool pendent lights.

That thing is awful get it out of there you will probably have to add at least 3 pot lights and then 3 small pendants above the island , that will give you much more light than you have now. It will be a paint to patche the ceiling and you might end up having to repaint all the surrounding ones too It looks like you have smooth ceilings so much easier to patch.

Yes ideally you'd remove it but if that is too much work at the moment, I'd paint it the same white as the ceiling rather than the wall color, maybe that would help it recede into the background.

Re pendants vs cans, I think that is up to you; I would just be careful not to choose pendants that make the kitchen feel closed off. I'd also maybe live with the kitchen a while first so you can figure out whether the lighting is adequate or not, and if not, address that at the same time.